What Does Deuteronomy 15:10 Mean?
You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, for on account of this word the LORD your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you stretch your hand out to.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.THE KEY
The verse binds the open hand to an ungrieved heart: giving is the hand’s release of what the heart has stopped gripping.
THE MEANING
You give, and your heart does not turn the gift into an inward wound. The verse holds giving and blessing together: the LORD blesses your work and whatever your hand sends forth. The act moves through both hand and heart; neither stays clenched around what is given.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that giving must leave the heart diminished, as though sorrow were the honest price of generosity.
THE ROOT
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The Hebrew intensifies the verb with the repeated form *naton titen*, “giving, you shall give.” The root also means to set or place: what leaves your hand is placed within another person’s reach.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The verse uses this root for the act of giving and again for what the hand puts toward its work.
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
A gift is what has been given and placed in another’s hands; it makes the root’s concrete movement visible.
מִשְׁלַח יָדֶךָ
mishlach yadekha
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send forth, release, or stretch out.
“stretch your hand out to” in this verse is mishlach yadekha. The phrase translated “puttest thine hand unto” is literally the sending forth of your hand. The verse links generosity with release: the hand extends into its work, while the heart lets go without grieving.
ALSO GROWS
mishlach: A sending forth or extension; here, the sending forth of the hand.
מִשְׁלַח
This is the word in the verse, revealing the hand’s work as an outward reach.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of a watercourse.
שִׁלֹחַ
Its sent waters echo the verse’s image of what flows outward to bring life.
בָּרַךְ
barak
GROWS FROM
ברך
To bless; also to kneel.
“bless” in this verse is barak. The blessing promised here is not separate from the work of your hands: it meets you across what you do. The root holds the concrete posture of kneeling alongside blessing, giving the word a bodily quality beneath the familiar English.
ALSO GROWS
barak: To bless; to kneel.
בָּרַךְ
The LORD’s blessing in the verse comes from this root.
berakah: A blessing.
בְּרָכָה
This noun carries the same root into the blessing received or bestowed.
THE PATTERN
Open-handed giving can sustain the giver’s work without becoming inward grief.
The living soul of blessing is made fat, and the one who waters is himself watered.Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and spilling over, they will give into your lap. For with the same measure you measure out, it will be measured back to you.Each one, as his heart has taken hold, so let him give, not from grief or from pressure, for God loves a glad giver.THE THREAD
You give to them, and they gather; you open your hand, and they are filled with good.“Givest” comes from the same root, נָתַן (*natan*), meaning to give, set, or place. Here, an open hand gives and living beings gather; Deuteronomy shows that same movement reaching another person through your hand.
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